Air-inlet valve for carbureters.



E. F. W. ALEXANDERSON.

AIR. INLET VALVE FOR GARBURETERS. APPLICATION FILED AUG. 21, 19111' 1,083,789.. Patented Jan. 6, 1914.

WITNESSES I fiYJ/I'E'NTUR .Ezzzvsr F WALEXANDERSUM Z1 15 ATTaHNEy.

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AIEIZNLE'I VALVE FOR. CARZBURETE'RS.

Spsciflcationof Letters Patent.

Patented J an. 6, 1914.

To'all whom it may concern DERSON, a citizen of the United States, re-

siding at Schenectady, county of Schenectady, State -'of New York, have invented certain new and useful improvements n Air- Inlet Valves for Carburetors, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to *dfiVlQBS for regulat-ing the admission of air to the 'carbureter of an internal combustion engine, and especially to carbureters of the ingector type, in which the liquid hydrocarbon is sucked through a nozzle by the current 'of air drawn in by the outward strokeof the engme piston. The vacuum which causes the liquid fuel to be picked up by the air current varies with the :square of the velocity of said current. This means that when the piston is moving at slow speeds the ratio of gasolene to air in the mixture W11]. be less than when the engine is running rapidly, so that the mixture may be too week at starting or at slow speeds and too r1ch when running fast. Efforts have been made heretofore to remedy this trouble, by providing a valve located in the air intake of the carbureter, :or in an opening leading to the pipe conveying the mixture to the engine, said valve being so constructed, as 'to regulate automatically the cross section of the conduit through which the air enters the system; decreasing the area at low speeds and increasing it as the speed increases. By varying the effective cross section dlrectly with the speed, the mean veloclty and pressure of the air are kept practically uniform so that the ratio of air to the quantity of gasolene vpicked up will be more nearly constant at all times. Theoretically these de-- vices should obviate all trouble due to im-.

proper mixtures, but in practice they do not always prove satisfactory owing to the desirable ends, by providing an air inlet valve in which a thin strip of resilient metal of light weight controls an opening for the admission'of air, being so constructed and arranged that it responds instantly to any e in speed of the engine, and changes the e ective area of said opening with every slightest movement.

The novel features of my invention are hereinafter set forth and particularly pointed out in the claims.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure l is a section of an embodiment of my improved air valve. Fig. 2 is a plan view of the same.

In the form shown in the drawing, the valve consists of a plate 1 of thin resilient sheet metal or other suitable material, clamped over the entrance to the" pipe 3, which may be the air intake of the carbureter, or an auxiliary air inlet between the carburetor and the cylinder of the engine. The thickness of this plate is much exaggerated in the drawing in order to clearly illustrate the same.

The plate 1 has three cuts 6. 7 and 8 on three sides of a square, and the metal inside these lines forms a tongue or reed. which will yield inwardly, when the engine is moving and admit air to the inlet pipe to a greater or less extent. To give better adjustment, the tongue is preferably cut into a plurality of tongues each of which forms as it were a reedcontrolling an opening into the pipe or other entrance for air. .lhese tongues or reeds may be of any desired number, size or shape. I prefer to arrange the slits so that some of the tongues (9) will have narrow bases and wide ends, while others (10) are more nearly uniform in width from end to end, and still others (11) have wide bases and narrow ends. The flexibility of the reeds is predetermined by the ratio between the width at the base and.

' the reeds strike when fully open. The

metal composin the tongues is so light that it has practical y no inertia and so it will respond instantly to any change in suction. The thinness of the metal insures a variation in the size of the opening the instant the ton ues move. Hence the valve responds per ectly to the demands of the'engine and at the instant the demand occurs, which tends to a smooth and eflicient performance of the engine.

When this valve is located at the air intake of the carbureter, it regulates directly all the air flowing to said carbureter. If it is located in an auxiliary air inlet between the carbureter and the engine, it acts like the check valve in a smoke pipe of a furnace, to slow down an otherwise excessive rush'of air through the intake of the carbureter, by

affording another entrance for air. In this case, however, it must be so desi ned as not to dilute the mixture to excess, ut onl to admit enough air to reduce to norma an.

otherwise too rich" mixture. .In each case,

however, the result is to vary the effective opening of the air intakedirectly with thei speed of the engine.

. patent statutes, I have described the principle of my invention,together with the ap paratus whlch I now consider to represent the best embodiment thereof; but I desire to have it understood that the apparatus shown is only illustrative and that the invention can be carried out by other means.

What I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States, is-

' 1. The combination with a member defining an opening for the admission of air to the carbureter'system of an internal conibustion engine of a flat resilient plate covering said opening, said plate being slit to form portions of varying resiliency adapted to yield in accordance with the suction produced by the engine, and means located in.

the path of movement of said portions to limit the yielding movement thereof.

2. An air inlet valve" for the 'carbureter system of an internal combustion engine, comprising an element permitting the entrance of air, thin resilient tongues of varyin width and of different degrees of flexibi ity arranged side by side in the same plane and serving to vary the effective area of the inlet in accordance with the speed of the engine and means for limiting the'movement of said tongues.

3. An air inlet valve for the carbureter system of an internal combustion engine, comprising a plate of resilient metal containing rectilinear slits forming a plurality of tongues of varying width and flexibilit adapted to yield under air ressure and a ford an opening through said plate varying in area with the air pressure.

4. An air inlet valve for the carbureter system of an internal combustion engine, comprisin a plate. of resilient metal slit to form a p uralit of tongues of varying width and flexibility. I

.'5. An air inlet valve for the carbureter system of an internal combustion englne,

.-comprisin a plate of resilient metal contain- I f Ting slits orming tongues adapted to yield In accordance with the provisions of the;

.under air pressure and afford an openlng ing tongues of different degrees of resiliency and a' 'stop' to limit the opening movements of said tongues.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this 19th day of August, 1911.

ERNST F. W. ALEXANDERSON.

Witnesses:

BENJAMIN B. HULL, HELEN ORroRn. 

